Old soldiers met at the Great Northern Hotel yesterday to swap stories of their exploits in the “miracle of deliverance” 68 years ago, which saw 338,000 soldiers of the retreating Allied forces plucked from the beach by a flotilla of small boats.

Among them was Harry Lee (92), of Eastfield Road, Peterborough, who hosted the lunch event.

With the Dunkirk Veterans Association disbanded, Mr Lee – who escaped the beach only to be captured later in North Africa – said he had wanted to pay for a rare get-together for his comrades.

He said: “I thought I might as well do something with my cash. What can you do with it later? I hope they all enjoy it.”

He added he was never worried by the thought of capture as he retreated to Dunkirk as a young soldier in the Royal Corps of Signals, going part of the way on a “liberated” ladies’ bike with a mate sat in front of him.

He said: “When you’re a soldier, you just accept what’s happening.”

Dunkirk has gone down in history as a masterstroke of British improvisation, but followed the crushing defeat in the Battle of France of the Allied forces at the hands of Germany in May 1940.

Many of the beaten British and French troops were encircled in Dunkirk, protected by a ring of troops fighting a rearguard action.

Among the defenders was Albert Hall (88), now of Gatenby, Werrington, Peterborough, then a young soldier with the 4th Battalion of the Royal West Kents.

He recalled the “chaos” which greeted him when he got to the beach.

Mr Hall said: “The Germans were bombing all the time, and there were bodies everywhere – at least I presume they were dead men.

“There were people killing horses and that type of thing for food. No one seemed to know what was happening.

“But I wasn’t worried about being captured, just about getting hurt, of course.

“We all thought we were going to get away, but it didn’t happen.”

Instead, Mr Hall’s hopes of escape were dashed when he was taken prisoner of war by the advancing Germans.

He said: “Unfortunately we ran out of ammo because the Germans had cut the troops off and we couldn’t get any supplies.